This week in TV Guide: July 16, 1966

You might think that being the captain of the most sophisticated nuclear submarine the world has ever seen, with the opportunity to travel the world on scientific missions, encountering strange underwater life and outer space aliens, would be enough for most men. But not for David Hedison. The co-star of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (along with Richard Basehart and the Seaview itself) still struggles with being, in his words, "one of the nameless heroes of television." From being mistaken for John Derek to having his name mispronounced, it's part of the terrain for a man who can only say, "I wish I had an image." 

Part of it, as I suggested, is that he often has third billing next to Basehart and the submarine. And, in fact, the whole premise of Voyage requires something of a suspension of disbelief. "If you can make this believable," he says, "you have really accomplished something." He points to a quote from Basehart that "'Richard III' was easier than this because the lines were there." to show that he appreciates the real accomplishment when an actor can "take nothing and make something of it." At the same time, though, there's only so far you can take it. A co-worker, complimenting him, points out that "He doesn't take himself seriously. He knows it's just a comic strip." And Hedison himself envies an actor like The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s Robert Vaughn, who "can go so many places and be with women and wear a tuxedo."

Still, there's no doubting that Hedison has come a long way from the times when he would sell his blood at $5 a pint to pay for acting lessons from Uta Hagen. His talent was recognized at an early date by both Hagen and Fredric March; Hagen said of him that "He had a wild temperament, a tremendous eagerness to make good in the theater. He had great promise." He won a 1956 Theatre World Award for his performance in the off-Broadway play "A Month in the Country," the only actor from an off-Broadway production to win. He was signed by 20th Century-Fox to appear in The Enemy Below, a submarine movie.* But since then, his primary claim to pre-Voyage fame came from his starring role in the now-cult classic movie The Fly, when he was known as Al Hedison. 

*Interestingly, the article doesn't mention that Hedison was originally offered the role of Captain Crane in Irwin Allen's original big-screen version of Voyage, but turned it down; Robert Sterling wound up playing the captain. Hedison would also turn down the role of Mike Brady in The Brady Bunch, a move I susped he didn't regret.

For all his doubts about Voyage, he understands the nature of the television business. "When Voyage first started I was apprehensive and didn’t like to talk about it. But then I watched the other shows on television, and I decided ours was nothing to be ashamed of." It's difficult, though, to not look back at his original hopes in the business. Hagen, for one, was sorry to see him go to Hollywood. "Young people see a chance to make some money; and then, without even realizing it, they get trapped. The last time I saw him, when he was visiting New York, he seemed sad. The fire had gone." And Hedison, who spent the Voyage hiatus in London attending the serious plays he still wants to do, followed by a stint in "The Teahouse of the August Moon" near Los Angeles. And then there's the role that still awaits him, that of Felix Leiter in a pair of James Bond movies; but that's another story.

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During the 60s, the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace were the premiere variety shows on television. Whenever they appear in TV Guide together, we'll match them up and see who has the best lineup..

Sullivan: Guests include Ed’s guests are Dinah Shore; comics Jackie Vernon and Dick Capri; Sgt. Barry Sadler; the rock ‘n’ rolling Four Tops; puppet Topo Gigio; guitarist José Feliciano; Les Feux Follets, Canadian folk dancers; and Markworth and Mayana, bow-and-arrow act. Rock ‘n’ rollers Simon and Garfunkel are seen performing in a recently taped segment. (The show originally aired on January 30; the Simon & Garfunkel segment was taped and added to this broadcast.)

Palace: Hostess Kate Smith introduces singer-dancer Juliet Prowse; singer-composer Charles Aznavour; Avery Schreiber and Jack Burns, who offer a comedy sketch about a talking vending machine; Charlie Cairoli and Company in a slapstick routine about a bakery; the Eight Rodos, German tumblers; comic Albert T. Berry; and illusionist Prasano Rao.

It almost seems un-American to go against Kate Smith this week, particularly with Chrlees Aznavour at her side, but let's face it: Dinah Shore, José Feliciano, the Four Tops, and Simon and Garfunkel. So nothing can be finah than Dinah, which gives Sullivan the victory this week.

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From 1963 to 1976, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever they appear, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. 

We come to you under somewhat false pretenses this week, as Judith Crist subs for Our Man Cleve, who's on vacation for the summer. And we couldn't have a better show for her to lead off with than the "Outstanding Dramatic Series of 1965," The Fugitive. As the series prepares to enter its fourth and final season (and first in color), Crist steps back to look at just what it is that has made the adventures of Dr. Richard Kimble such compelling viewing, week after week.

After all, the basic framework, which features the good doctor escaping from the clutches not only of the police, but any number of onlookers wishing Kimble ill, "is enough to try the patience of the most gullible among us." For even though it's a given that "the various arms of the law Kimble almost inevitably encounters in each episode are going to be too stupid to recognize him or, if he is recognized, too inept or kindhearted to capture him in the midst of the good deeds he is almost inevitably involved in, we still want to have the empathic thrill of skirting danger and facing doom along with our hero." And besides, common sense tells us that he can't be captured until 1) the series goes off the air, or 2) it changes its title. So what is it that keeps America tuning in to watch its favorite fugitive from justice elude the forces of law and order?

First and foremost is the performance of David Janssen, who plays Kimble "as one of the least monotonous of the secret-sorrow, dogooding, compassionate humanists  to have come our way; he’s remarkably durable on the eyes, interesting in the performance." There's also a freshness in the show's approach, in the "scene, plot and characters that the hero's rootlessness, an able assortment of scriptwriters and directors, and an astute producer provide." In the last three weeks alone, we've seen Kimble match wits with William Shatner (an unequal contest, to say the least) at an exclusive boys' club, Mickey Rooney in a self-serve laundry, and Melvyn Douglas as a neurophysicist. Oh, and did we mention Barry Morse as Lieutenant Gerard. Coincidences may abound, plots may be padded, and storylines may get tangled in overcomplexity, but the secret is in "letting the illogic of the format go by and riding with its presumptions." It is, Crist concludes, "a secret most of us have stumbled on."

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When you've been doing this gig for fifteen years, you look for different angles to approach the highlights of the week. That's especially true during the summer, when, to be honest, it's hard to find anything fresh to talk about. One thing we've noted many times in the past is how, in these pre-VCR days, reruns were the only way to catch up with the shows you'd missed, for one reason or another, earlier in the season. So this week, we'll concentrate on some of those episodes you'll want to see with that second chance. 

Saturday is one of those nights where it seems as if everyone's going to pick their channel and stick with it: ABC with The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet at 7:30 p.m., The Donna Reed Show at 8:00, Lawrence Welk at 8:30, and The Hollywood Palace at 9:30. Over on NBC, you've got Flipper, I Dream of Jeannie, Get Smart, and Saturday Night at the Movies. CBS is the odd man out, at least for part of the evening; at 7:30 it's Continental Showcase, the summer replacement for The Jackie Gleason Show; this week, Jim Backus hosts, with the Swingle Singers leading a group of international acts; Secret Agent at 8:30, with Drake working at a pirate radio station to track down a spy; and The Face is Familiar, with Jack Whittaker hosting celebrity guests Pearl Bailey, Allen and Rossi, and Mel Brooks. Ordinarily the night would be capped with Gunsmoke at 10:00, but this week it's preempted by the Miss Universe Pageant.

It's no surprise that Branded only survived for two seasons, considering the series on at the same time: The FBI on ABC, and The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. Nonetheless, this Sunday gives us the second of a two-part story in which our hero (Chuck Connors) finds himself in the middle of a war between landowners and gypsies. (8:30 p.m., NBC) You've also got a choice to make at 10:00 p.m.; if you've started watching the ABC Sunday Night Movie at 9:00, you're going to pass up CBS's Candid Camera and NBC's The Wackiest Ship in the Army, which heads for the island of Kanapura, and a group of Australian girls who've been spying on Japanese shipping.

The John Forsythe Show (Monday 8:00 p.m., NBC) didn't fare very well as a successor to Forsythe's successful Bachelor Father, but with competition from 12 O'clock High on ABC and I've Got a Secret on CBS, it was probably an uphill struggle even if the show had been better. Tonight, John has to go toe-to-toe in the ring with Moose Grabowski, the academy's new football coach. I'm afraid he doesn't have his angels to help him out, either. Meantime, you may have missed Art Linkletter's Talent Scouts (10:00 p.m., CBS) while you were trying to decide between The Big Valley and Run for Your Life (although The Big Valley started the season on Wedneday), but tonight you can catch a rerun that features Jim Nabors, Jill St. John, and Ray Walston. Unfortunately, they aren't performing; they're just introducing their talent prospects, one of whom is comedian Alan Sues. 

If you're a fan of Daktari on Tuesday nights, you might have missed this tense episode of Combat! in which a lone German sniper takes aim at Saunders' men (7:30 p.m., ABC). They'd wiped out the German squad earlier, and now the survivor plans to pick them off one by one, saving Saunders for last. Since Combat! returns for a final season this fall, it's safe to assume he won't succeed. You also would have missed a double-bill of sitcoms on NBC; first, on My Mother the Car (7:30 p.m.), "Dave is given one last chance to sell the Porter—before Captain Manzini (Avery Schreiber) shrinks the antique auto to the size of a toy." That's followed at 8:00 by Please Don't Eat the Daisies, as a leaky room convinces the family it's time to sell their old home before it becomes a money pit.

Two of the season's big ratings winners come on Wednesday, where Batman (7:30 p.m., ABC) and The Beverly Hillbillies (8:30 p.m., CBS) both finish in the top ten. As an alternative, we've got a Lost in Space episode that features both space werewolves and hillbilly space farmers. (7:30 p.m., CBS) How could you ask for anything more? Meanwhile, ABC's World War II half-hour spy drama Blue Light (8:30 p.m.), which got smashed by Hillbillies in the ratings, stars Robert Goulet as an American double agent who, tonight, is threatened with exposure unless he agrees to become a triple agent by working for the Soviets. Talk about going from the frying pan into the fire.

You definitely could use a VCR on Thursday: with Daniel Boone on NBC and part two of the Batman adventure on ABC, how are you going to make room for The Munsters on CBS? (7:30 p.m.) Tonight, the family's pet dragon, Spot, runs away after Herman disciplines him, and heads for the sewers. On the other hand, if you did watch The Munsters, you might have stayed for Gilligan's Island (tonight, featuring the Wellingtons, who sing the show's theme, playing a hit rock group looking to escape from their fans), which means you'll miss Gidget (8:00 p.m., ABC), where Gidget goes for a ride with a friend without telling her father first. Whoops!

Then again, there are some shows that just never had a chance; with The Wild, Wild West and The Flintstones as the opposition, even the rerun season (and Nina Wayne) couldn't save Camp Runamuck (Friday, 7:30 p.m., NBC), with features Arch Johnson's Wivenhoe announcing his plan for a successful diet. Honey West (9:00 p.m.), probably didn't have a prayer against Gomer Pyle, USMC, despite Anne Francis doing double duty tonight, playing both Honey and her lookalike, the notorious thief Pandora Fox. And with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. riding high, the rerun season might have been the only time you'd have watched the British import Court-Martial, starring Bradford Dillman and Peter Graves. (10:00 p.m. ABC) Tonight, an MP goes on trial for killing a German concentration-camp commandant. Breathe easy, though: it's not Colonel Klink.

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We do get some specials along with the reruns this week, and they're doubly special because we can actually watch some of them. 

This week's programming may be preempted or delayed by the launch of Gemini X, which took off, as scheduled, on Monday afternoon for a four-day mission, and I suppose some people might be blasé enough about the space program to look at it as a rerun. On board were astronauts John Young and Mike Collins; Collins, who became the first astronaut to perform two spacewalks, will later be a part of the famed Apollo 11 crew, where, as the sole member of the crew to remain in the capsule during the moon landing, he will be farther away from any other human than anyonce since Creation. Young, for his part, will later walk on the moon, and still later will pilot the first flight of the Space Shuttle. Gemini X splashes down safely on Thursday; the networks will provide complete coverage. Speaking of which, here is NBC's coverage of the launch, with Frank McGee.

I mentioned Miss Universe earlier; Margareta Arvidsson of Sweden is crowned Miss Universe 1966 in the pageant, held in Miami Beach. Pat Boone and June Lockhart are the hosts on the stage, while Jack Linkletter does the honors on the television broadcast, which exists in its entirety on YouTube.

On Tuesday, CBS presents an acclaimed portrait of composer Igor Stravinsky, "considered by many to be the world's greatest living composer," originally shown in May. (10:00 p.m.) The network is probably hoping more people see it this week than did in its original run two months ago. Charles Kuralt is the narrator; you can see a clip from it here.

NBC counters with an original news special on Wednesday, as Moscow bureau chief Kenneth Bernstein narrates an hour-long look at "Siberia: A Day in Irkutsk." It's not the Siberia you think of when you hear of dissidents being exiled there; Irkutsk, a city of nearly a half-million, is not only the cultural center of Siberia, it also has the Trans-Siberian Railroad, not to be confused with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which may or may not have anything to do with Irkutsk, or anything else for that matter. No freebee, but you might be able to watch it if you subscribe to Peacock+.

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Well, we haven't had a fashion spread here for awhile, and we could go for something that's chic and sleek and modern, and who better to display such wares than Janice Rule, the wife of Ben Gazzara and a pretty fair actress in her own right, in both television and on the big screen.

Here she is modeling the latest from the summer collection of Dynasty of Hong Kong, with a decidedly Oriental accent. Wonder if she wore anything like this while Ben was filming The Killing of a Chinese Bookie? Yes, I know that was made ten years after this, but it's still a good thought.

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MST3K alert: Earth vs. the Spider (1958) Teen-agers in a small community are threatened by a giant spider. Ed Kemmer, June Kenney. (Sunday, 3:00 p.m., KSBW in Salinas) The description is accurate as far as it goes, although the spider isn't selective; it's threatening the whole town, not just the teens. But the real highlight is that June Kenney and Eugene Persson, who play the two teens trapped in the spider's lair, also play teens in episode 607, Bloodlust!, which stars a pre-Defenders Robert Reed. What do you think of that? TV  

This week in TV Guide: April 10, 1965

Even the word sounds quaint, old fashioned. Smut. Sounds like something your grandmother might have warned you about, and if she'd been around in 1965, reading TV Guide, she might have felt justified after reading Leslie Raddatz's article—first in a three-part series—on "Smut in the Living Room."

It's one of the first articles we've seen that indicates a shift, perhaps ever so slight, toward sex replacing violence as the number one concern of television viewers. Raddatz suggests that this may be due to television's ever-increasing use of movies to fill in scheduling gaps. With those older movies that have been staples of broadcasting since the start comes the newer fare from Hollywood, which New York Times critic Bosley Crowther describes as containing "an unmistakable surge of sensuality and just plain smut." Two of the leading offenders of the moment are Kiss Me, Stupid, which Playboy (of all sources) described as "amateur night at a third-rate burlesque house" and The Carpetbaggers, described by Life as "An untalented leering paean to sex." Since this is a three-part article, we're not going to see a comprehensive analysis of the situation right away; indeed, in part one, Raddatz focuses his attention on two men in particular: Billy Wilder, the man who brought us Kiss Me, Stupid; and Joseph E. Levine, the producer of The Carpetbaggers.

Wilder won't discuss Kiss Me, Stupid, but Raddatz has plenty to say about Wilder, whose career and his work "have often verged on an, at best, unconventional and sometimes seamy borderline." Critics have addressed "the inner nihilism, the impatience and contempt for the audience" in many of his movies, and a former associate calls him "the only guy I know who could sneer 'Merry Christmas.' " Despite this, or perhaps because of it, he's one of Hollywood's most honored directors, with the Oscars to prove it. 

   Is this as hot as it gets while fully clothed?

Wilder came from humble origins—when he moved from Berlin to the United States, he initially lived in an unused ladies' lavatory of a hotel—and Raddatz wonders, in the psychoanalytical style of the times, if his desire to bend the boundaries of acceptability somehow constitute "a defense of his base beginnings." His movies tend to deal with "distasteful or single-entendre themes," such as adultery in Double Indemnity and The Apartment, alcoholism in The Lost Weekend, drag in Some Like it Hot, prostitution in Irma la Douce, and—raising the states—double adultery in Kiss Me, Stupid, which Life, in its put-down of the movie, said included "situations and a dialog that would generate blushes in a smoker car." Wilder, an opponent of censorship by "ladies' clubs in Nebraska," professes delight with television, since it gives those in movies "something to look down on."

Levine, whose movies, like Wilder's, have won honors, has several already running on television: "Two Women, which involves the rape of a woman and her teen-age daughter, Room at the Top, which concerns adultery; A Taste of Honey, which deals with illegitimacy and homosexuality; and The Mark, which is about a suspected child molester." The movies run later in the evening, at 10:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and carry with them a respectability that seems often to be absent from Wilder's films. 

They also tend to spark less outrage than those of Wilder's, and Raddatz wonders if this might be the answer to a problem faced by television programmers. "The great thing," according to one Hollywood journalist, "is that television has taken over the place of program pictures and B pictures, so that good adult movies can be made. If these adult films can’t be shown on television, does it mean that all motion pictures are to be made at the level of the TV viewer?" In other words, the critics can focus their barbs on Kiss Me, Stupid and the like, allowing "worthwhile adult films in dignified fashion" such as Room at the Top and Two Women to be viewed as acceptable alternatives. 

Or, he wonders at the conclusion of part one, when these new displays of smut turn up on television, will we see things come to a point? Will we see more self-regulation, or is the government, "—either through Congressional committees or the Federal Communications Commission—preparing to move into this sensitive area?"

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From 1963 to 1976, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever they appear, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. 

The question before us is this: is For the People really for the viewers? Cleveland Amory is inclined to think so, although he concedes it may not be for all the people. But as a logical successor to The Defenders, he thinks this legal drama will do just fine. Like its predecessor, the show is long on realism, and desiring of topicality—even though its grittiness may, at times, come close to discouraging us. But, he says, if you stick with it, you won't be sorry.

For the People, as the title might suggest, takes the opposite tack from The Defenders (given that it's produced by the same people, comparisons are unavoidable), with William Shatner as assistant D.A. David Koster, an earnest, bulldog prosecutor, aided by his boss (Howard Da Silva), a friendly detective (Lonny Chapman), and his loyal wife (Jessica Walter), who sometimes wishes he could just let go of the job for awhile. It boasts an equally fine lineup of guest stars, all of whom turn in particularly fine performances. It is, Cleve says, as "equally exciting" as The Defenders, but "even more penetrating and engrossing." 

As someone who, for the most part, appreciated The Defenders and, in fact, has seen a couple of episodes of For the People, I can sympathize, even agree, with much of what Amory says. Where we part company, though, is in the matter of the show's star. Amory sees Shatner as "right up there in the big leagues with David Janssen, Robert Lansing, Vic Morrow and Richard Crenna," to which I can only scoff. This is not to be unduly harsh on the Shat, but I've always felt that he was almost always the weak link in every production he's appeared in. In For the People, as in most of his roles, he comes across either as overly intense, or so over the top that you'd think he was working behind a deli counter, he's hurling so much ham around. I know a lot of you might not agree with me on this, but to suggest that he's in the same league as those other actors is probably the funniest thing I'll read in this issue; he might conceivably be close to Morrow (although I can't envision Shatner in Combat!), but as for the other three, it strikes me as, frankly, preposterous. Apparently the viewers felt at least somewhat the same: For the People lasts but 13 weeks before shuffling off this mortal coil.

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This week may seem to you a lot like last week, which wouldn't be surprising, given that Easter doesn't have a fixed date each year. (If you're interested in just how the date for Easter is determined, you can read about it here.) One of those duplicates from last week is the Masters, golf's first major of the season, which concludes this weekend with CBS's coverage of the third and fourth rounds (Saturday, 2:00 p.m. PT, Sunday, 1:00 p.m.) What promises to be a thrilling showdown between golf's big three of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player—tied for the lead after 36 holes—fails to materialize as Nicklaus puts the pedal to the metal over the weekend, shooting 64-69 to finish with a then-record score of -17, winning by nine shots (another record at the time) over Palmer and Player, who finish tied for second.

One of the commentators on CBS's coverage is Dr. Cary Middlecoff, who won the Masters himself in 1955; this week, he sits down with Melvin Durslag to discuss what he sees as a threat to golf's success on television: overexposure. There's no question that televised golf is thriving at the moment, helping lift prize money to a then-unheard-of $3.5 million over 43 PGA tournaments. (By comparision, last year's Masters—a single tournament—offered $20 million in prize money, including $3.6 million for the winner.) Much of the popularity for the sport, Middlecoff believes, is due to former President Eisenhower, the world's most famous golfer. "While he was in office, he played golf, he watched golf and he talked golf. He made people conscious of the sport." And Arnold Palmer, the most charismatic golfer around, has certainly made the sport attractive. But Middlecoff sees a dark side to all this. "The money is rolling in now," he concedes, "but we could be heading toward overexposure. I wonder what's going to happen if people start watching tournaments, say, 30 times a year on TV." He thinks 15 televised tournaments a year would be about right; "Otherwise, the public will lose interest."

This might sound ridiculous at first glance. Is there any such thing as overexposure for a sport on television? For a long while—during the Tiger Woods boom—people couldn't seem to get enough of it on TV. The result is that today, every tournament is televised, either on networks or cable. And not just the final holes of the final two rounds, either; by shuttling between stations, one can see every shot, not only of those weekend rounds, but the first two rounds as well. And when you combine that saturation coverage with prize money that encourages the top professionals to play only a handful of tournaments each year, plus a general lack of charismatic stars—well, is it any wonder why ratings for golf have fallen dramatically over the past few seasons? Having most of the world's best players competing in rival golf leagues doesn't help, either. Clearly, there are probably two dozen tournaments that could be dropped from the TV schedule without anyone noticing. Which would leave us with somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 tournaments that become important viewing. Just what the doctor ordered, it would seem. (Or dentist, in Cary Middlecoff's case.)

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As with last week, this Sunday is Palm Sunday, which leads into some interesting seasonal programming, chief among them being the one-act Passover opera "The Final Ingredient," commissioned by and airing on ABC's Directions '65 (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.). The music is by David Amram, with a libretto by Arnold Weinstein, based on a television play by Reginald Rose. Amram, who most recently composed the movie score for The Manchurian Candidate), also conducts the orchestra in this story of inmates in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, preparing to celebrate the Seder for Passover. Willialm Covington, Joseph Sopher, and Malcolm Smith are among the stars in this production, which ABC likely hoped would become an annual event, a la "Amahl and the Night Visitors." Not for the first time, I'm amazed at how little information there is out there on a program that was considered important at the time, was composed by a prominent composer, and was released on record. More info than we see on some lost programs, but still, it goes to show how lost the television historian would be without TV Guide.

Among other Passover programs, there's also "From Exodus to Selma; Marching for Freedom" (Sunday, 10:30 a.m, KRON in San Francisco), in which Bay Area rabbis who participated in the Selma civil rights march discuss "the Jewish concept of freedom found in the Passover as translated into present-day civil rights action." It's a prime example of the social justice bug, one of the plagues of the 1960s, working even then to infect religion, turning it away from the spiritual and toward earthly things.

Continuing, NBC presents a Palm Sunday Mass from St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in Cincinnati (8:00 a.m.). Later Sunday, it's That I May See (11:15 p.m., KSBW in Salinas), with Ruth Hussey and Raymond Burr in a story of Bartimeus, the blind beggar healed by Christ. Tuesday's Bell Telephone Hour (10:00 p.m., NBC) offers an hour of music saluting both the sacred and romantic aspects of spring, hosted by Olivia de Havilland, and featuring Metropolitan Opera star Richard Tucker, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Dorothy Collins, Ron Husmann, Anita Gillette, and dancers Edward Villella and Patricia McBride. On Thursday, the First Baptist Church choir and orchestra of San Jose presents a half-hour of Easter music (7:30 p.m., KNTV in San Jose). Finally, a pair of seasonal movies commemorate Good Friday; at 9:00 p.m. it's The King of Kings (KVIE in Sacramento), Cecil B. DeMille's original silent spectacular from 1926, starring H.B. Warner; then, at 10:00 p.m., Paul Newman stars in 1955's The Silver Chalice (KXTV in Sacramento). Newman, by the way, was a better actor than William Shatner.

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Thursday night's Kraft Suspense Theatre (10:00 p.m., NBC) airs "Rapture at 240" (video here), the pilot for the upcoming fall series Run for Your Life, starring Ben Gazzara as a man faced with an unspecified terminal illness*, leaving him a couple of years to squeeze in a lifetime of living. The fact that Run for Your Life ran for three seasons always seems to have tainted the series a bit, and some have thought that this was a reason ratings for the series dipped that third season, leading to the show's cancellation. I don't know about that; after all, M*A*S*H, Hogan's Heroes, and Combat! all had longer durations than the wars in which they took place; as someone once pointed out, TV time runs differently from normal time. (There's a website out there that actually posited an unofficial timeline showing how the episodes could have taken place in the given time.) My suspicion is that it might have had more to do with the main character, Paul Bryan, not always being all that likeable, but then I could be reading my own thoughts about Ben Gazzara into that. I think Gazzara might have preferred that the series lean a little more into the existentialism inherent in its concept, which I would agree with. One thing I think we can agree on is that Ben Gazzara was a superior dramatic actor to, say, William Shatner. 

*Some sites have posited that the disease from which Paul Bryan was suffering was chronic myelocytic leukemia, which is plausible as diseases go. It is true, however, that it was never given a name in the series, and if it were, it would be in this pilot, where we see Bryan's doctor giving him the death sentence.

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Among the rest of the week's highlights, we have more sports: Saturday, it's bowling's preeminent event, the $100,000 Firestone Tournament of Champions in Akron (3:30 p.m., ABC; video here). Billy Hardwick defeats Dick Weber in the final, taking home a prize of $25,000—more, I'll have you know, than Jack Nicklaus got for winning the Masters. Yes, bowling was a big sport back then. In prime time, KRCR in Redding carries David L. Wolper's documentary The General (6:30 p.m.), a profile of General Douglas MacArthur on the first anniversary of his death. Later, The Hollywood Palace is preempted for the special "Mission to Malaya," a profile of Peace Corps volunteers and the hardships they deal with in Malaya. (9:30 p.m., ABC)

On Sunday, the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers clash in the fifth game of their Eastern Division final (2:00 p.m., ABC), with the Celtics taking a 114-108 victory and a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. The Celtics eventually win in seven, on their way to a five-game victory over the Los Angeles Lakers and their seventh consecutive NBA championship. And now that I think about it, it's probably a good thing Palace was preempted this week, because I don't think it would have had a chance against Ed Sullivan's lineup, which includes Maurice Chevalier, Cab Calloway, the San Francisco Ballet, singer Felicia Sanders, Soupy Sales, Gerry and the Pacemakers, juggler Rudy Schweitzer, comedian Loundon Lee, light heavyweight champion Jose Torres, and Stiller and Meara.

Saturday was the first anniversary of Douglas MacArthur's death; Monday is the 20th anniversary of the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Charles Kuralt hosts a one-hour special, "FDR Remembered" (10:00 p.m., CBS), looking at the personal side of the late president. Included among the interviews is one with Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. at the family home in Hyde Park, New York. 

Monday was baseball's Opening Day, and in honor of the season, the Channel 7 all-night triple feature begins with It Happened in Flatbush (Tuesday, 1:00 a.m.), with Lloyd Nolan as a former big-leaguer hired as manager of a team on its last legs. Carole Landis co-stars. Wednesday, Robert Cromie's guest on Book Beat is Ladislas Farago, discussing his book Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, the basis for the 1970 movie biography that won an Oscar for George C. Scott. 

The late Richard Chamberlain is put in charge of the annual nurses and residents' review on Dr. Kildare (Thursday, 8:30 p.m., NBC), giving us a chance to find out that the staff of Blair General Hospital is not only much larger but much more talented that we might have thought, what with Darryl Hickman, Rosemary De Camp, ◀ Dorothy Provine, and Jud Taylor being among the guest stars. 

On Friday, Jack Paar's Good Friday show includes Charlton Heston (a better actor than William Shatner, by the way), who reads a passage from Genesis that inspired Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; author Morris West (whose previous novels include The Shoes of the Fisherman), discussing the Vietnam situation in conjunction with his new novel, The Ambassador; and Bob Newhart, who has nothing to do with Good Friday, but is always welcome for good humor. (10:00 p.m., NBC)

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We haven't had a fashion spread for a while, so I can't think of a better time for one than now, to wrap up the week. It features Barbara Barrie modeling the year's hottest trend: leather. For motorcycle riding, you know. 

Of course, any fan of The Avengers could talk to you about leather. TV  

This week in TV Guide: October 15, 1966

One of the facts of life, a fact we all have to contend with, is that people die. It's just natural. Judy Carne and Peter Deuel, neither of them yet 30 when they appeared on the cover of this week's issue, are dead. So are Robert Goulet and Sally Ann Howes, the stars of Brigadoon, the musical that preempts The Hollywood Palace this week on ABC (Saturday, 9:30 p.m.). In fact, many of the people featured in this issue of TV Guide have passed away in the 57 years since it was published. And if they haven't, their careers have. 

And then there's William Shatner. As Michael Fessier Jr. (1939-2014) relates, the star of Star Trek is enjoying the good life. They've been interrupted by a young man, "eager-to-please," asking Shatner, "Would you like something cold to drink?" The Shat, after ordering, tells Fessier, "Before, I always thought that kind of, uh . . . toadying was beneath human dignity. But for the first time I’m able to see the reason for it. These little attentions do help. It makes life easier for me."

The road to the stars hasn't been easy for Shatner; after some success on stage, he declined a seven-year contract from Fox. "I was going to set Hollywood and Broadway on fire my own way," he remembers. Instead, except for some well-regarded television appearances, his career consisted of one mistake after another. He turned down the lead in Dr. Kildare. He was upstaged by Walter Matthau in A Shot in the Dark on Broadway. The pilot for one potential series, Alexander the Great, was a failure, while a series he did do, For the People, was bludgeoned by Bonanza. And while the Broadway play The World of Suzie Wong was "a money-maker," it did nothing for his career or his sanity. "Every night was a nightmare," he says. "I almost had a nervous breakdown." He was on the verge of giving up acting and turning to directing if the Star Trek pilot didn't pan out.

We all know how that turned out. And, in the most Shat-like way, he reveled in the success. "I’ve gotten a great insight into the omnipotence of the series lead. Everybody does his best not to upset the star. It’s an almost unique position few in the entertainment world achieve . . . It’s like absolute power." He's used that power to change things on the set; for one thing, he's no longer subjected to last-minute script revisions. He requested, and got, a small gym set up for him by the studio. His suggestions are welcomed by Gene Roddenberry, who calls them "intelligent." And, says Fessier, "Too many ostensibly facetious allusions to his own 'hero' ambitions sneak into his conversation."

But while Shatner enjoys his stardom, he's also frustrated; he's already 35 ("It's a good age this year, but what about next?") and hasn't achieved what he thought he'd have by now. Still, it's hard to complain. Says Leslie Stevens, who wrote and directed the experimental movie Incubus in which Shatner starred, "He has an unquestioned greatness. How long it will take to flower I don’t know. . . But he has always kept his standards intact."

That was 57 years ago, and today, William Shatner is 92, still famous as Captain Kirk, but almost as famous simply for playing himself, which is what he's done the last few decades, no matter what the role. And whether you're a fan or not, there's something about being able to stay at that level of stardom for so long that impresses. Perhaps his star never reached the heights he thought it would, or hoped it would—but boy, it's burned for a long, long time, and one has to think that William Shatner is still enjoying the last laugh.

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Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. 

The scenery in NBC's new adventure series Tarzan is, Cleveland Amory says, breathtaking. When that's the lead to your review, methinks you might be in trouble. And in this version, featuring "an articulate, modern Tarzan who is familiar with the ways of civilization," trouble is, indeed, as near as the latest hanging vine. As Cleve notes, "when you combine the idea of the Noble Savage with the clichés of modern TV, something's got to give. We wish it were the clichés, but in this show it isn't."

Scenery notwithstanding, any Tarzan series is only as good as the actor playing Tarzan, in this case Ron Ely. He looks like Tarzan—he's tall, has a good build, and is reasonably convincing as he's swinging from tree to tree or diving into waterfalls. And he sounds like Tarzan, but that's because the famous yell actually belongs to the famous Johnny Weissmuller, whose original yell is electronically reproduced. And, again, when that's all you have to say about Tarzan, it seems as if something is lacking.

Speaking of which, something else that's lacking is Tarzan's mate, Jane. In this version, Tarzan has only his loyal Cheetah and a little boy named Jai, "a part which is, if you can believe it, even sillier than “Boy” used to be in the old Tarzan films." The plots are filled with mysterious deaths, traps for Tarzan, elephants, coral snakes, murders, good-guy lions and bad-guy lions (who look exactly alike)—well, you get the point. Cleve's verdict: "We recommend Tarzan highly as a show to put the kids to bed by, but that’s as far as we can go." As for the rest of us, tune in again next week—same time, different station.

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It's no surprise to find out that the Pentagon has some complaints about the way television is covering the war in Vietnam, and Neil Hickey reports on his ten-week investigation into "the honesty and adequacy of television's coverage of the war; and to measure, count and catalog the problems relating to the coverage." It is clear, writes Hickey, that television is the "single most potent element" in forming public opinion, and that the war is certain to be the biggest issue in this year's midterm elections and 1968's presidential campaign. (Boy, is that an understatement.)

The Pentagon's misgivings about television coverage boil down to several points: that television focuses too much on the visual—battle scenes and air strikes—without covering what's going on politically in Vietnam; that TV crews move with smaller units, even though what happens at the platoon and squad level is only minimally significant, thus providing an out-of-context story; that young and inexperienced reporters lack the ability to cover the nuances of the war; that footage is edited to emphasize violence and drama; that too many internationals, who strongly disagree with the United States, have been employed in the news bureaus; and that casualties are occasionally portrayed on TV before the next-of-kin are notified.

Newsmen interviewed by Hickey concede some of the points; NBC's Jack Fenn allows that, because violence is inherently exciting, some events covered on television are inflated beyond their actual importance. Another newsman says that television at times try to explain things that can be done much better by newspaper reporters. "Television," he says, "will never replace The New York Times." (Neither will today's New York Times, for that matter.)

Are the reporters too inexperienced to understand the full picture? According to CBS's Charles Collingwood, "Vietnam is the most physically demanding role that reporters have ever been asked to take." It's a young man's war, with a young man's stamina required to keep up with it, and the networks are aware that when it comes to the wiles of Vietnamese politics, these young reporters are often out of their depth. Kalischer, the veteran, says that "I'm supposed to be the grand old man around here, and I' reluctant to do it myself." For that reason, the networks tend to leave the background reporting to occasional visits by newsmen like Eric Sevareid, Howard K. Smith and Chet Huntley, and to the veterans of the Asia bureau, who've had vastly more experience covering the area.

The biggest challenge faced by television, according to Hickey, is "to achieve balance between the seductive and the significant; to submerge the conviction that a sense of violence is important merely because a camera is recording it; to find the substance behind the shadow." Because television is limited in the scope of what it can cover, it often concentrates on what it can cover, at the platoon level." The Pentagon says this can be misleading; as Peter Kalischer, a veteran correspondent from Korea, points out, "Wars always look better from division headquarters than they do in the foxholes." And, in fact, commanders in the field are often more responsive to TV's challenges than the superiors in Washington. But it remains true that a visual medium like television has to go where the action is, even when the information is more available at brigade headquarters. 

Col. Rodger R. Bankson, Chief of Information in Vietnam, tells TV Guide that the military and media have been working closely to address the challenges faced by both in covering this war. He adds, "We have no problem out here which men of good will can’t solve." Considering that the Vietnam War will continue on for more than six additional years, with tensions rising both domestically and at the front, one can't help but regard this as whistling in the dark. 

The ad on the left, which runs in this week's issue, is a total product of its time, a stark reminder of the concerns many young people and their parents are facing at the time; one could read the first point more accurately as, "To go to Canada or to not go to Canada, that is the question," and it's going to become even more of a question as the Sixties progress. I've shared this anecdote before, but when I was in high school in the 1970s, discussing post-graduation options with classmates, we were reminded by our teacher that, if we'd been ten years younger, we'd be talking about the draft rather than what we'd be doing next year. (And at this point, we still had to register for Selective Service, and notify them whenever we changed addresses.) Boy, we didn't realize just how good we had it back then.

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No Sullivan vs. The Palace this week, as I mentioned, but there's still plenty to look at. If you want, you can certainly check out Brigadoon, which, as I mentioned at the top, has an excellent cast including Robert Goulet and Sally Ann Howes; the original production won Best Musical from the New York Drama Critics in 1947, and this adaptation was done by Emmy-winner Ernest Kinoy. If you're in the mood for a lyrical evening, watch it on YouTube.

Something I wanted to make sure to mention is the Sunday night movie on KTVU, The Thief (7:30 p.m.), a tense spy drama starring Ray Milland as an American scientist passing on atomic secrets to the communists. It's very good, but the movie's real hook is that there is no dialog whatsoever. And Ed Sullivan probably would have beaten Palace this week anyway; his guests include Eddie Albert, who reads Stephen Vincent Benét’s "A Ballad of William Sycamore"; and Carroll Baker, who offers songs from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; comedians Allan Sherman, and Stiller and Meara; singer Sergio Franchi; the singing-dancing Kessler Twins from Germany; and the Suzuki Violins, 10 young Japanese instrumentalists. (8:00 p.m., CBS) 

The new season formally started last month, but we're still seeing new shows being rolled out as part of the daytime schedules. NBC has two of them debuting on Monday, beginning with The Pat Boone Show at 10:00 a.m.; this Monday-Friday half-hour variety show will run until June 30, 1967 (when it's replaced by the game show Personality). That's followed at 10:30 a.m. by a game show with a slightly longer run: The Hollywood Squares! "Peter Marshall hosts this game show based on tick-tack-toe." As originally produced, Squares featured five regulars: Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Abby Dalton, Wally Cox, and Cliff Arquette as Charley Weaver. They'll be joined each week by four guests, and this week those guests are Agnes Moorehead, Ernest Borgnine, Sally Field, and Nick Adams. The most popular square of all, Paul Lynde, doesn't become a regular until 1968; The Hollywood Squares remains on the NBC daytime lineup until 1980, with a syndicated nighttime version running from 1971 to 1981. 

Here's a happy coincidence on Tuesday: at 8:30 p.m., The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s Robert Vaughn is a guest on The Red Skelton Hour; in one skit, Vaughn plays Victor Virtue, "trying to rid the West of sin and saloon girls" until he runs into Sheriff Deadeye; I'm sure Vaughn's at his smarmy best in this role. Meantime, at 9:00 p.m. on KTLA, his U.N.C.L.E. co-star, David McCallum (of happy memory) stars in the memorable Outer Limits episode "The Sixth Finger"—that's the one where he becomes the smartest man in the world and winds up with this huge head. I'm sure you know which one I'm talking about. 

Two completely different types of murder mysteries highlight Wednesday night's schedule. At 9:00 p.m., Bob Hope's second comedy special of the season is a spy spoof called "Murder at NBC." Bob plays Von Smirtch, a mad scientist who's developed a nuclear chemical capable of shrinking the entire country so it can be towed away. (That's what it says, folks.) A network newsman is killed while he's about to break the story, hence the show's title. (Given that the NBC logo is prominent on the set of the newscast, it's too bad they couldn't have gotten, say, Edwin Newman to play the victim.) The main appeal of the show is in a fantastic ensemble cast, including Don Adams, Milton Berle, Red Buttons, Johnny Carson, Jack Carter, Bill Cosby, Wally Cox, Bill Dana, Jimmy Durante, Shecky Greene, Don Rickles, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, Soupy Sales, Dick Shawn and Jonathan Winters. Although it's been mislabeled, you can find it on YouTube.

This is followed at 10:00 p.m. by ABC Stage 67 and the drama "The Confession," starring Arthur Kennedy as a veteran police detective investigating the death of Bonnie (Katharine Houghton), a young girl who entered into a suicide pact with her boyfriend Carl (Brandon de Wilde) when they discovered Bonnie was pregnant. While Bonnie died from the gas, Carl lived—and now Hammond is convinced that Carl should be charged with murder. Interesting concept, described as "the moral dilemma of a police officer who goes beyond the letter of the law to find the truth." Is Hammond a heavy-handed cop willing to bend the law based on his personal feelings, or is he convinced that Carl wanted Bonnie dead, and is just playing the victim card? Jack Gould, the Times TV critic, calls it "A muddled drama about a neurotic detective bent on administering a psychological third degree to suspects," which leads me to believe it was the former. 

This week's guest villain on Batman (Wednesday and Thursday, 7:30 p.m.) is the great Vincent Price, in the first of three appearances as Egghead (speaking of men with huge heads, or at least foreheads), a super-criminal created especially for the TV series; the story concerns Egghead's efforts to take control (legally, of course) of Gotham City when officials fail to renew the treaty with the Mohican Indian tribe, causing the city to revert back to them. Edward Everett Horton plays Chief Screaming Chicken, and any resemblance to the character he plays in F Troop, Roaring Chicken, is purely intentional.

On Friday, ABC News presents a special that's out of this world. No, I mean literally. It's "We Are Not Alone" (10:00 p.m.), based on the book by New York Times science editor Walter Sullivan and narrated by newsman Edward P. Morgan, which looks at the scientific case for extraterrestrial life. I bring this up as a fairly relevant story, considering the headlines we've been seeing lately about UFOs. (I'd think that the government admitting to the possibility should be enough to convince anyone not to believe it.) For the record, I think it's all a lot of hooey, but I'll admit there are times when I'd be more than happy to be transported somewhere far, far away from the madness of planet Earth. 

Running throughout the week are paid political programs; it is an election year, after all, and in this Northern California edition, the dominant race is for governor, with incumbent Pat Brown taking on the challenger, Ronald Reagan—and the Reagan campaign is unleashing its most powerful weapon, the candidate himself. He's on a live half-hour broadcast from his Malibu ranch at 4:00 p.m. Sunday (KPIX, KSBW, and KXTV), appears on the CBS News special Campaign 66 (Sunday, 6:00 p.m.), and can be seen for five minutes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (5:20 p.m., KSBW). Brown, who almost certainly was guilty of supreme overconfidence, is on for only five minutes on Wednesday. (7:25, KOVR) Did I mention that next month Reagan will defeat Brown by nearly a million votes?

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And now, a minute or more with another star who's still with us, the irrepressible That Girl herself, Marlo Thomas, who has some fall fashions for us to consider.

 

There's something pleasant about being able to pick up an issue from the Sixties and not having to refer to everyone in the past tense. Ron Ely and Katharine Houghton are still around as well, and I'm sure they're not the only ones!

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MST3K alert: The Undead (1957) An unscrupulous psychic researcher hypnotizes a street-walker and learns of her past life as a falsely-accused witch in the Middle Ages. Pamela Duncan, Richard Garland. (Thursday, second part of KGO's All-Night Movie, beginning at 1:30 a.m.) Directed by Roger Corman, perhaps the best analysis came from Mike Nelson, who commented, "I've never known more about what isn't going on in a movie." I've seen this several times, and I still feel this way. And we didn't even get a short at the beginning. TV  

This week in TV Guide: May 29, 1965

Let's give top billing this week to one of the most under-appreciated actors in television, Dick York. As Edith Efron points out in the story's intro, there's a pile of press clippings in an executive office of Screen Gems. It has to do with one of the studio's new hits, Bewitched, a show "that has a good part of the Nation in a tizzy," and the pile of clippings weighs about 10 pounds, "And the subject of every article is the witch herself—with a few kind words about her witch mother. The advertising-man husband is almost never mentioned."

The "witch" is, of course, Elizabeth Montgomery, and her mother is Agnes Moorehead. York's friends and colleagues are indignant about his press invisibility; producer Danny Arnold calls the critics "shallow" and points out that without York for Montgomery to bounce her character off of, "nobody would care. He supplies the motive for everything she does." Adds Moorehead, "Dick plays a very important part. Ignoring Dick isn’t constructive criticism. It’s absurd." And Montgomery says that "anyone who watches him work appreciates his talent."

York is philosophical about it all. "The two witches," he says, "are by far more spectacular than I am. I’m just a human being. And I’m identified by the critics as being just like themselves. I, too, am watching the witch from the sidelines." He then adds, in a disconcerting prophesy, "{T]the only way to tell if it’s me or not is to kill me off in one show, give the witch another husband and see if I’m missed."

York's entire career has been, as Efron puts it, "steady if nonamazing." He's worked in theater, radio, and television, and has worked with the best, including Elia Kazan and Stanley Kramer, all of whom agree that he is a very good actor. But York is without the passion that drives so many in the profession; "I don't work because I love it," he allows. "In our household, work is something Daddy sdoes to provide us with things we need for our physical comforts." His great passion is his wife Joan and their five children, about whom he talks endlessly. He writes short stories, he paints, he sculpts, he studies religion. And, although the article makes no mention of it, he's in almost constant pain as a result of the back injury that will eventually force him to leave the show.

Dick York describes himself as "a man who's looking for something. He's still looking for a self." Even today, when considering his signature role of Darrin Stephens, he's often identified as "Darrin #1." And that's too bad, because not only is a fine actor, he also sounds like a fine man.

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During the 60s, the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace were the premiere variety shows on television. Whenever they appear in TV Guide together, we'll match them up and see who has the best lineup.

Sullivan: Scheduled guests: musical-comedy star Anthony Newley, who will sing numbers from his Broadway musical "The Roar of the Greasepaint—The Smell of the Crowd"; comedian Bert Lahr doing his "Woodman, Spare That Tree" routine; singers Connie Frances and Wayne Newton; comic Jackie Vernon; the comedy team of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara; monologist Morty Gunty; the De Mille aerialists; and comedian Pat Henning. .  

Palace: Hostess Kate Smith welcomes satirist Mort Sahl; singer Trini Lopez; silent comic Ben Blue; the Juan Carlos Copes dance troupe from Argentina; harmonica-player Stan Fisher; Desmond and Marks, English comedy dancers; and the Karlini and Jupiter dog act. 

A couple of good lineups on tap this week; it's hard to go wrong with Kate Smith, especially when she's singing "God Bless America" (which she will), and Mort Sahl probably has as much to satirize as he ever does. I think it comes in second, though; Anthony Newley has several hits in "Roar of the Greasepaint," including "Who Can I Turn To?" and Bert Lahr's "Woodman" route is a classic. (Here it is from an early episode of Omnibus.) The rest of the lineup isn't bad either, so on that basis Sullivan wins the week.

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Throughout the 60s and early 70s, TV Guide's weekly reviews were written by the witty and acerbic Cleveland Amory. Whenever we get the chance, we'll look at Cleve's latest take on the shows of the era. 

Weep not, Hollywood Palace fans, for though you may not have won this week's battle with Sullivan, you have won Cleveland Amory's vote. "We admire Ed Sullivan for doing his show live, but the fact is ABC’s Palace, on tape, seems more alive." It also doesn't hurt that a few times a year, you're going to get Bing Crosby as the host. "To say that Bing is the best somehow seems not enough. At singing, acting, or just being himself, name your best—and Bing is better."

Cleve speaks highly of all the hosts, in fact, a long and distinguished list that includes Burl Ives, Pat Boone, Eddie Fisher, Victor Borge, Robert Goulet, and Debbie Reynolds—and, "you won't believe this," even Debbie was good. He particularly liked the show we looked at a few weeks ago, in which Louis Armstrong was honored for 50 years in show business; in particular, the closing "Old Man Time," which Satchmo sang with Jimmy Durante, was wonderful. Bette Davis was another standout, both in performing (a song-soliloquy) and in introducoing guests like dancer Barrie Chase and Nerveless Nocks, the amazing high-pole act. ("This is one time, with no net, when we thoroughly appreciated the fact the show's on tape—they couldn’t have fallen.")

The show's first anniversary celebration—hosted by Bing, of course—was "one of the fastest-moving, most pleasant variety hours we have seen all season," Amory recalls. And, in one of the great compliments any critic can pay any performer, he recounts the old jokes and tireless cliches that Crosby trots out in a vaudeville spoof with Frank McHugh and Beverly Garland. ("I have a dog named Ginger." "Does Ginger bark?" "No, Ginger snaps.") "Somehow," Cleve notes, "when Bing does it, it’s not only different, it’s great." It could be said for The Hollywood Palace as well; the lyrics to an old song go, "Until you’ve played the Palace, you haven't played the top," and when Cleveland Amory says that about you, then you know it's true.

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Big doing in the manned space program this week, as Gemini IV—the second two-man American capsule—is scheduled to launch this Thursday, with James McDivitt and Edward White the astronauts. Gemini IV is important for a number of reasons: not only will this be the longest American flight, at four days, it will include the first American spacewalk, with White scheduled to take the 20-minute walk during the first day. 

Coverage begins Tuesday night when Chet Huntley and David Brinkley preempt the drama anthology Cloak of Mystery (a series of reruns from G.E. Theater and Alcoa Presents) to preview the mission, including interviews with crew members and key NASA personnel. (9:00 p.m. PT) Similar reports air on Wednesday, anchored by Walter Cronkite (8:00 p.m., CBS) and Jules Bergman (ABC Scope, 10:30 p.m.) Launch day coverage begins at 4:00 a.m. Pacific time, with Chet and David (NBC), Cronkite and Mike Wallace (CBS), and Bergman (ABC); the coverage continues until 9:00 or 9:30 a.m., with updates continuing throughout the day; ABC plans one-minute evening bulletins on the hour, NBC with similar updates prior to every show, and CBS with a five-minute report at 9:25 p.m. All three networks have 15-minute reports scheduled at 11:15 p.m. The same schedule is planned for Friday evening, and presumably continue throughout the weekend, until splashdown Monday morning. 

The Gemini IV mission proves to be a complete success. Not only is it a crucial next step in the lunar program, it matches Soviet achievements, sending the Russkies a message that the U.S. is in it to win it.

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It's a rare occasion when Lawrence Welk takes a week off from his own show, but he's absent from Saturday's broadcast (8:30 p.m., ABC). The reason: he's back in his home state of North Dakota, receiving an honorary degree from North Dakota State; I'm sure Myren Floren can man the show just fine in the maestro's absence. The Music Makers pay tribute with "My North Dakota Home," which I confess I'm not familiar with despite having spent a half-century living next door to it.

Sunday afternoon, CBS airs the American debut of Martin's Lie (4:00 p.m.), the one-act opera by Gian-Carlo Menotti about a young boy who must choose between telling the truth and saving a man's life. It was originally scheduled for a primetime debut in January, but was pushed back to today. The director is Kirk Browning, who worked with NBC Opera Company for many years prior; it's also the first collaboration between the network and Menotti, who broke up with NBC acromoniously after the final production of Amahl and the Night Visitors. 

Back in the 1960s, before the Uniform Monday Holiday Act that created so many three-day weekends, Memorial Day was May 30. That falls on Sunday in 1965, so everything's been moved to Monday, including National Golf Day, the day when the U.S. Open champion plays the PGA champion for $10,000. More important, the winning score sets the target for amateur golfers across the country, who have had two weeks to submit their best handicap score in competition with today’s winner. (In 1964, 4,751 amateurs received PGA certificates by beating Jack Nicklaus’s 67.) Live coverage from the Laurel Valley Country Club in Ligonier, PA begins at 2:00 p.m. on NBC; PGA champ Bobby Nichols will edge U.S. Open titelist Ken Venturi by one stroke, shooting a two-over-par 73. Just for the fun of it, I Googled "National Golf Day" to see if it's still around. It is, but it's a little different now: it's a day for leading organizations and industry leaders to educate (i.e. lobby) Congressional members on golf's impact.

The movie highlight of the week is the Spencer Tracy classic Bad Day at Black Rock (Wednesday, 9:00 p.m., NBC), with an outstanding supporting cast including Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine, and Lee Marvin. It's perhaps my favorite Tracy movie; if the title leads you to expect a Western, you'll be in for a surprise.

Rounding out the rest, the great Ethel Merman makes a rare dramatic non-singing appearance in the Kraft Suspense Theatre presentation "Twixt the Cup and the Lip" (Thursday, 10:00 p.m., NBC), the story of a timid man (Larry Blyden) who schemes for revenge after being fired from his job; the Merm plays the owner of the boarding house in which he lives.

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We've talked before about cross-promotions where the stars of a show on one network appear as guests of a show on another network. One of the more unusual examples happens this week on The Match Game (Tuesday through Friday, 2:30 p.m., NBC), where the celebrity guests this week are baseball's Joe Garagiola and Whitey Ford. Garagiola works for NBC as a co-host on Today, while Ford is in the final seasons of his great career as a pitcher for the New York Yankees—and that technically makes him an employee of the Yankees' owner, CBS. The network purchased the perennial champions (14 of the last 16 American League pennants) last year, and as Melvin Durslag reports, it's been anything but smooth going. The presumption has been that CBS purchased the Yankees in an effort to control baseball on television; right now, the Yanks are one of only two teams exempt from ABC's national baseball contract due to previous commitments (the Philadelphia Phillies are the other); William MacPhail, Yankees VP, says the network hasn't yet decided if they'll join the TV package next year. He also denies CBS had anything to do with the firing of manager Yogi Berra and long-time announcer Mel Allen; those decisions were made "before we bought the club." And the team is under threat from their crosstown rivals, the hapless New York Mets, who outdrew the Yankees by 400,000 fans last year; the network is still assessing how to compete with the Mets.

CBS's ownership of the Yankees falls far short of expectations. The team fails to win the pennant in 1965, and the next year finishes the season in last place for the first time since the sinking of the Titanic. Their greatest stars, including Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Elston Howard, and Ford, either retire or are traded away. Perhaps most embarrassing is the World Series victory for the Amazin' Mets in 1969. While the seeds of the next great Yankees teams are planted through shrewd drafts and trades, and the team makes a deal with the city to remodel Yankee Stadium, CBS sells the team to a group led by George Steinbrenner in 1973*, saying that the network had concluded "that perhaps it was not as viable for the network to own the Yankees as for some people." 

*They bought the team for $11.2 million, sold it for $10 million. Not one of the network's better deals.

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The young (19) Liza Minnelli is this week's fashion plate, and as you can see, even though we haven't reached peak-60s style yet, the color palate is definitely changing. Layouts like this are as good an indication of cultural trends as anything in TV Guide.

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MST3K alert: Killers From Space. (1942) Flying over a bomb-test area, a scientist notices a strange light. Peter Graves, Barbara Bestar, James Seay. (Saturday, 6:00 p.m., KSWB, Salinas) Another presentation on MST3K's sister, Rifftrax. Peter Graves was in a lot of movies like this back in his pre-Mission: Impossible days. The description means nothing without mention of the bug-eyed monsters, though (created from cut-in-half ping-pong balls). And don't forget that Peter Graves graduated from the University of Minnesota. . . TV